Mitsubishi Electric U.K. Application Story

Background
Mitsubishi Electric Europe, UK Branch is a £530 million operation consisting of 2,000 staff based at 9 locations, four of which are factories. Mitsubishi opened its doors in the UK in 1976 and in 1979 to manufacture color TVs. Today it manufactures and distributes a broad range of consumer audio/visual products as well as industrial products and personal computers. The audio/visual products are brought to the UK market through a network of nearly 1,000 licensed dealers, who provide sales and repair services to the end consumer.

Mitsubishi Electric's UK operation operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, a multi-billion dollar, trans-national enterprise. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is recognized as a world leader in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment used in information processing and communications, space development and satellite communications, consumer electronics, industrial technology, energy, transportation, and construction.

Mitsubishi Electric is focused on using its creativity and technological know-how towards the common goal of improving the quality of life in both the home and the workplace.

Commitment to Service and Technical Excellence - Examining the Issues
In early 1996, the Consumer Products Division of Mitsubishi Electric Europe started to explore new methods of on-line transactions for their dealer network. Mitsubishi had a history of being progressive -- having provided options for electronic commerce to dealers for several years in the form of Viewdata technologies and more recently mainframe terminal emulation through direct dial-up from PC's.

Priding itself on a leadership approach, Mitsubishi concluded that integrating this on-line order processing function with its Internet presence would create a "one-stop" resource for dealers to access any company information, product information, technical reference, product updates, dealer messages, and product ordering.

At the same time, this solution would provide a user-friendly, familiar format, that is easily accessible from any computer with a standard browser -- a true open-system world standard. An Internet solution that could run on a web server at Mitsubishi, would eliminate the cost and administration issues of client/server based solutions.

The solution would have a direct, real-time connection to the Mitsubishi mainframe-based order processing system without the need to rewrite application code or upgrade system software.

Mitsubishi soon realized that this Internet electronic commerce solution could be used to provide a standard interface throughout the company, not just for the Consumer Products Division.

Finding the Solution

The Information Technology Department developed a specification for the electronic commerce solution they envisioned. It would replace each of the current dial-up systems and provide one common method of connecting to Mitsubishi.

After considering several proposals, MODCOMP was selected to provide its ViewMax solution. Mitsubishi was impressed with MODCOMP's solution for the following reasons:

The ViewMax Solution

MODCOMP configured a state of the art solution based on Mitsubishi's requirements. For the web server, a Sun SPARCserver 20 dual processor platform running the Solaris UNIX®-based software environment was installed. The SPARCserver and the UNIX operating environment both had excellent track records in the Internet world. Netscape Commerce Server was selected for the server software, again based on its popularity and functionality for this type of solution.

The size of the server was selected to allow Mitsubishi to expand the use of ViewMax to cover its other divisions and provide support for additional applications. They licensed 16 "concurrent" mainframe sessions which will easily handle the 1,000 dealer network, with the opportunity to increase that to 32 if necessary.

Mitsubishi already had a firewall in place for their Internet e-mail and Web access. The ViewMax solution allowed this security to remain intact and implemented two additional layers of security. Incoming Internet traffic uses Netscape's Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and a required dealer log-in authentication and is then routed through the existing firewall. This created a solid security system, protecting the core business application from tampering, unwanted access to information, and other improper use.

One-Stop Information Source
Mitsubishi's IT presence is now structured into three categories:

Mitsubishi's Dealer Club remote ordering system (ViewMax) empowers the dealer. With order entry, stock verification and delivery status at their fingertips the dealer has full control of ordering process, allowing Mitsubishi to operate more efficiently and focus resources on manufacturing and fulfillment.

Once the dealer is set up with a PC, browser and bookmark to the Dealer Club, this intuitive, easy-to-navigate system is self explanatory, eliminating the need for training. In the future, an on-line warranty claims section will be added so any claims or replacement parts can be taken care of independently through the web site as well.

Mitsubishi's Consumer Products Division is presenting the Dealer Club remote ordering system (ViewMax) as an option. They will be phasing it in as the dealers request it -- allowing it to run in parallel with the other on-line transaction systems already in place. Dealer roll out began in January 1997 for Consumer Products with the other divisions following shortly after. The complete conversion of all dealers should take no longer than three to five years.

Enhanced Results

Beyond simply improving the user interface, Mitsubishi was pleased with the ability of ViewMax to enhance the functionality of their mainframe CICS application. What used to be text-only "green screens", have now become multimedia, intuitive, interactive forms and information pages. Their Dealer Club and public pages now include photographs and other graphics. Mitsubishi can easily expand this to include other multimedia technology such as audio and video as well.

ViewMax's logic and math module has been used to enhance the functionality of the mainframe application. Adding and multiplying order quantities and pricing allows dealers to see their complete order, with pricing totals before they order. And after the order is submitted, a final purchase request is returned, which can be printed and used as an invoice. Logic tools are used to return user friendly responses instead of abbreviations and codes produced by the database application.

Plus, the Java-based front-end verification saves user, network and system time by checking fields for complete and correct information at the browser so that incomplete forms are never submitted.

Conclusion
Mitsubishi can now offer their dealers one standard interface to access any company information over the Internet. From the Mitsubishi bookmark on their web browser dealers can go directly to the web site, see information about the company, products, technical, repairs, modifications, upgrades, and place or track orders.

Some dealers represent five or more different consumer electronics manufacturers, each with its own on-line or paper-based trading method. Dealer operations would become more efficient and productive if those manufacturers opted to provide them with Internet access. A browser on a PC or NC with a different bookmark for each manufacturer could justifiably become the dealer's preferred method of trading. Wasted time and effort by juggling multiple communication media to access a variety of systems as dealers presently do would be eliminated. The ViewMax solution has demonstrated a radically different, more streamlined approach to accomplish this transaction process and Mitsubishi has seized that advantage and is poised on the leading edge of their market.

"With their forward thinking Internet strategy, Mitsubishi has positioned itself to be a leader in the provision of web-based services to consumers, dealers, and internal staff alike. As people get used to communicating and trading over the Internet they will move away from suppliers who don't offer this service," stated Brian Miller, MODCOMP's General Manager, International Operations. "That's the reality of the Internet -- on-line marketing, information delivery and electronic commerce offer such huge benefits in improved customer service and cost of sales reduction that no enterprise can afford to ignore it".

About MODCOMP
MODCOMP is one of a few independent companies offering a total Internet solution. ViewMax is not simply "shrink-wrapped" software, MODCOMP is a systems integrator who works closely with the customer to develop a turn-key package from mainframe to web. This includes everything from configuring the web screens to setting up the communication to the mainframe and dealer networks. There are many other companies addressing portions of this and there are many that focus on developing entirely new IT systems. MODCOMP provides a niche product for those who need to retain their current IT infrastructure while providing web-based interactive commerce to their customers.